When many people encounter intersexuality (the condition of individuals who are genetically and/or anatomically both male and female) for the first time, it’s often through the sensational headlines of journalists like the one above by ABC’s Ashley Jennings from just a few days ago. Granted, these headlines do exactly what they’re supposed to in the age of online traffic quantified by page traffic and clickable ad revenue, but such stories, in some ways the gauge of public perception, frame intersex individuals as modern-day bearded ladies.
The story offers a single perspective on a complex set of experiences (conflated with Hollywood drag of the early 90s comedies The Birdcage and Mrs. Doubtfire). While Steven/Stevie’s experience is by no means common, it is not entirely unique. The Intersex Society of North America offers statistics on the frequency of an array of intersex conditions affecting people at frequencies ranging from 1 in 66 to 1 in over 100,000 with roughly 1,500 intersex babies being born in the United States each year. Some, like Steven, go most or all of their lives without knowing about their intersexuality. Others are operated on at an early age as doctors and parents respond to the so-called “medical emergency” of abnormal genitalia (often resulting in losses of function and sensation). Others go through life without surgery, but facing shame and secrecy associated with what the world around them might think about their embodied difference and liminality.
It’s no surprise why intersexuality isn’t often discussed as it simply doesn’t easily fit into the world views of many. Returning to a previous metaphor briefly, the carnival barker headline may bring in the traffic, but the discussion that ensues in the comment section of these stories is to no one’s surprise the real circus as various sideshows of worldviews take shape. Comments on this particular story range from the cruel, framing Steven/Stevie as the butt of a divine joke:
to the ignorant:
to the conspiratorially tangential:
Like any anonymous online forum, the standard crackpots rear their heads and make their jokes, but more thought-provoking comments prevail exposing some of the apparent complications in how we define gender in the 21st Century:
Naturally, questions arise such as what is the division between male and female? Where does Stevie stand under the laws of her state and country? If this happens in nature, what is the theological explanation for intersex bodies created by an infallible God? There are no simple answers.
Several works of fiction and non-fiction have grappled with these questions beyond the scope of snappy novelty headlines. Scholars and organizations such as Alice Dreger and ISNA have made it their mission to explain intersexuality and advocate for the rights of intersex individuals. Jeffrey Eugenides’ 2002 novel Middlesex features a Greek immigrant coming to terms with his intersex identity in San Francisco. Intersex in Film is devoted to considering these questions by discussing filmic representations of intersex people alongside audience reception of intersex narratives including those of intersex individuals and advocates most familiar with the issues at hand.
Intersex in Film 